little. >> we didn't talk about that much. former president bush in intense itch care and here's wishing him a speedy recovery. >> absolutely. great man. >> the family urgency is the ideology. that is something surprising at this point. >> in china they have no ideology. 75 members of the communist national people's congress are billionaires now. >> i also learned that you like me do nothing on new year's eve. >> not nothing, you just don't do it with strangers. >> i'm happy to make it. absolutely. but here's something for you. you are watching "morning joe." here's what happens. right now it's time for that. take it away. >> aloha, hawaii. the president is on his way back to d.c. where for him it's about playing small ball with most

members of congress still in their home district, speaker boehner put that ball in the senate's court. harry reid tossed it right back. are we looking at another lost day in the negotiations? hitching a right on air force one, the new senator from hawaii and it's not what we expected it to be. here we go again. the president in washington and another deadline. secretary geithner warns we will hit the debt ceiling even before we tumble over the fiscal cliff. good morning from washington. it is thursday, december 27th. this is "the daily rundown." i'm luke russert. two days after christmas and washington is back to work trying to harsh out a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. the senate will get back from the session after holiday break. the president is expected to arrive back to the white house without his family to get back

to twork mework to meet the loo deadline. mike is at the white house. let's start with you. the consensus around the hill is that we are more likely than not to go over the fiscal cliff, but there is a small chance harry reid could take a house pass bill and amend it and send it back over to the house. what are you hear being that? >> conceivably, but when the president lights upon the south lawn and the marine one later this morning, it's unclear why he is coming back and who will be here with him. as you mentioned, speaker boehner remains in ohio where he is from. he is not coming back to washington. neither is the house of representatives. they simply said it's up to harry reid in the senate. is he preparing a bill? there was a lot of talk of small ball. a bill to allow taxes to go up on everybody or at least couples that make more than $250,000 a year.

$200,000 with single filers. harry reid said he is not going to prepare a bill unless mitch mcconnell allows it to come for a vote for a simple majority. they are seeking assurances that he won't try to block it. for his part he said it's up to the president to lead. unclear if anything is going to happen today. it's becoming more and more likely we will hit january 1st without a resolution. >> peter, obviously the president gets back a little bit from now. what are we hearing about their strategy? we have that very effective bully pulpit? >> it's a good question. the president is supposed to arrive a couple hours from now. 72 degrees for honolulu. better hope he brings sunshine back with him. the real challenge is when he gets here, there is barely 100 hours before the headline hits. he said a short time ago

describing their strategy and it remains not too dissimilar. it's not whether we can get a deal done or not. whether mcconnell will filibuster such a deal and will boehner allow a vote. the strategy he indicated moments ago. that doesn't look like good news with the frosty exchange of statements between house speaker boehner yesterday and majority leader reid. the statements indicated this political paralysis we have been stuck in for several days. the question is he seems out and can they do the little things to get us past the deadline. >> i want to go back to you. procedurally, we know how hard it is for any type of bill, even if they agreed on it to move forward by that deadline. explain why that's so hard? >> consider the likelihood that mitch mcconnell does not insist on that plateau.

such a bill that goes back to the house of representatives, the senate sent the same bill back to the house in august. how is john boehner going to get the votes for that when he couldn't get the votes for plan b to raise taxes on only those making $1 million a year. it seems unlikely that the current course we are in will be the solution. we have gone nowhere here. peter is right. once we go over the cliff, the likelihood of the grand bargain that touches on spending in a tax code, the charitable deductions and mortgage interest deductio deductions, that is less likely and guess what. we have a fight in two months when the debt ceiling and the government runs out of money. >> that's where i feel all the eyes are on capitol hill. saying you can't do this with the fiscal cliff. what a two months that will be. thanks so much for joining us. we appreciate it.

joining me here in the studio with our first reads of the day, senior political editor mark murray. welcome. back and forth from the harry reid. we have congressional ping pong going on. you said it is time for house republicans to put middle class families first bypassing the senate's bill to protect 98% of americans on january 1st. the senate bill could pass tomorrow if the house republicans would lead it come to the floor. the house had two bills that collectively can avert the entire fiscal cliff if enacted. those bills await action by the senate. >> the classic ping pong gridlock and no way out. >> it's important to know how far we have come in the last seven days. a week ago we were closer than we had seen before on a particular deal. john boehner made a big concession allowing tax cuts to

rise on income over a million dollars. president obama countered with a big concession and saying that that should be $400,000 and have fixes to social security on costs of living adjustments on that. what ended up happening? john boehner retreated their plan b that mike viquiera was talking about that was unable to pass and now we are in the stalemate we are in now. we were closer than before. >> you touch on a good point. that's lost now in the media. we are going-over the cliff. last week they are $450 billion away from a deal. that's less than 1% of the federal spending over the next decade. in d.c. terms, 400 billion seems like a lot. that's a drop in the bucket in d.c. terms. it's amazing that small of a number killed a deal. >> if you are buying a house or a car and one person said look, i'm going at $1 billion.

usually split the difference and do the deal. this time around, that didn't happen. neither was hoping for this. if house republicans couldn't go for that million dollar threshold, they are not going to go for 400,000 or 600,000. that's why we are probably going to end up going-over the cliff and seeing what can be done after that point. >> it's absolutely amazing and shows you how close they were and have no desire to take any political boat. anything story out of hawaii. everyone expected that governor abercrombie was going to name senator to inouye's dying wish. he nominated brian schatz. he conveyed his final wish and while we were disappointed it is not honored, it was the governor's wish to make and he wished him the best.

>> kind of a shock out of hawaii. >> it's always important to remember that governors and not senators get to make the appointments. also there a lot of surprises in politics and everyone gets their wish. i have been hearing for democrats who have their ear to the ground on hawaii politics. they are very loyal to abercrombie and that pays a lot of big dividends and going and picking the lieutenant governor for this senate seat, if you have gone to the house and picked colleen or another member of congress, that would trigger a special election and you would have to replace another person. this is an easy fix to get somebody to start voting right away without triggering any special election for the house. >> they want that vote on the fiscal cliff. still the employee of the month and thank you so much. next, breaking with boehner. a month ago, oklahoma congressman tom cole endorsed compromising and going-over the fiscal cliff. what's he saying now?

the minority report, we will get the view from the other side of the aisle with john yarmouth. a look ahead at the president's schedule. you are watching t"the daily rundown" on msnbc. i love the holidays. and with my bankamericard cash rewards credit card, i love 'em even more. i earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. that's 1% back on... [ toy robot sounds ] 2% on pumpkin pie. and apple. 3% back on 4 trips to the airport. it's as easy as... -[ man ] 1... -[ woman ] 2... [ woman ] 3. [ male announcer ] the bankamericard cash rewards card. apply online or at a bank of america near you. [ male announcer ] the bankamericard cash rewards card. is bigger than we think ... sometimelike the flu.fer from

with aches, fever and chills- the flu's a really big deal. so why treat it like it's a little cold? there's something that works differently than over-the-counter remedies. prescription tamiflu attacks the flu virus at its source. so don't wait. call your doctor right away. tamiflu is prescription medicine for treating the flu in adults and children one year and older whose flu symptoms started within the last two days. before taking tamiflu tell your doctor if you're pregnant, nursing. have serious health conditions, or take other medicines. if you develop an allergic reaction, a severe rash, or signs of unusual behavior, stop taking tamiflu and call your doctor immediately. children and adolescents in particular may be at an increased risk of seizures, confusion or abnormal behavior. the most common side effects are mild to moderate nausea and vomiting. the flu comes on fast, so ask your doctor about tamiflu. prescription for flu.

>> . today is a critical moment in a fiscal cliff talk with days remaining in the year. the prospect seems slim and more than 400 lawmakers are waiting if are a possible call from speaker boehner to get into action.

oklahoma congressman tom cole serves on the house committee and former head at one point, thanks so much for being on the program. >> thank you. you surprised at all that you are at home in oklahoma right now and not in washington, d.c.? >> i'm going to be on an airplane tomorrow headed back. i think there is still a chance to get something done. these deals usually come together at the last moment. that's what happened at the budget and the debt ceiling deal and that will happen again. >> why are you cautiously optimistic when everyone said we are going to go over the cliff? >> to paraphrase ronald reagan, there is so much manure around here, there has to be a pony someplace. common sense takes over and nobody wants the taxes on 98% of the american people to go up. i think we can act quickly to take care of that and wish we have done so several weeks ago. at the last moment, the way they

theses normally happen this can happen again. we have to put egos aside and putting the interest of the american people first. >> the house gop has a conference call. what do you expect to hear on the call. do you think other members will follow your lead and head back to washington without prodding from the leadership? >> i don't know about that. that's up to the speaker. i support the speaker. we were set to vote for plan b last week and we worked hard for it. i never have known john boehner not to have a plan or idea to have a lead. i think again people overlook in this discussion how much support he had in the caucus. he clearly had somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 posts. this idea that the majority of republicans were against what he was proposing is not true. he had massive support and got no democratic help on the taxes and that probably killed the deal in the end. the speaker retains a lot of support and i suspect whatever he proposes today will get

tremendous support in congress. >> your colleagues from ohio said that the big problem here is just continuous blame. both sides blaming each other and no one wanting to make the tough decision to take on something they may not like entirely. do you feel someone is very familiar with the members and your conference that there is too much blame game going on between both sides and people are too fearful of making the tough vote. it's a profile in courage. >> i think there is a lot of principaled opposition. it's not just the tax issue and the fact that they haven't put anything near enough for the spending restraint and entitlement reforms. at the end of the day, we have a democratic president and senate and a republican house. we are not going to get anything done that doesn't involve a measure of compromise and nobody is going to cheat total victory. to me there areas we agree in

making sure taxes don't go up. we can move on to the other issues. you pointed out earlier both the debt ceiling and the sequester and the cr. there will be big spending fights in front of us. let's take the american people out of the line of fire. move on and have the debates and discussions. we have to be on a lot firmer footing when we talk about those things. >> lastly there is speculation that the reason why speaker boehner is not moving more quickly to make a deal is he doesn't want to have fingerprints on something that would raise taxes ahead of his election for speaker on january 3rd. do you think there is any worry that he may not be elected speaker on the first ballot come that election at the beginning of the year? >> there is no worry. he had the complete support of everybody for plan b and has the support for speakership for most

of the members that were opposed. this was a debate and discussion and not over his leadership. honestly not for two years, but for four. >> four more years for john boehner. we appreciate it. >> thanks. >> house democrats have spent the past two years on the sidelines of major policy decisions. if a fiscal cliff vote happened before january 1st, you could have a major influence on the nation's economic future. democratic congressman john yarmouth served and a lonely planet and ranked the number one city in america. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank, luke. come any time. >> i will ask you, are you surprised that you are in washington, d.c. today or you are not in washington, d.c. today and do you have plans on traveling back? >> i'm very surprise and no, i'm not going to come back unless there is a reason to. we have a big basketball here saturday for louisville and

kentucky. that's the one consolation for me about the stalemate that i will be able to watch the game here. no, to me it looks like there is no way that there is going to be any deal done. most of the 230 get something done on the republican side. unfortunately i don't think anything can get through the house unless they are able to get a number of votes. we are able to provide them if we do what makes sense. >> in 2008 you voted against the first t.a.r.p. do you see that as something that will be necessary to happen for people to approve a deal or republicans will hold out until january 3rd to not have their fingerprints on any tax increase at all? >> i think the latter is the case. with t.a.r.p., i vote for the second one. we put between the first and the second, some different controls on how the money can be used.

this is having them to raise taxes and the budget i introduced last year to every republican that voted against it. i don't see what in the world can get through the house unless the democratic votes with it. i think that's why the republicans failed with plan b. >> someone who has a vast understanding of the united states economy with time on the budget committee, there seems to be speculation amongst members that we are not going to go off the cliff at the beginning. we have up until january 10th or 15th or 20th before things get really bad. the market is continuously going

down since plan b failed. there seems to be no agreement in sight. how confident that we won't see a total tanking of the markets? >> i'm not confident. i don't think we will see a tanking market, but the market will respond if we don't get it there quickly after the new congress this morning. i think that's a wild card of a discussion. we have a lot of new members. 80 something new members coming to the house and some of them bring the same mandate that many of the more conservative republicans did, but a lot of them don't. i think it's a different mentality. we blurred the lines between campaigning and governor. a lot of them want to govern. i think things can happen quickly in january. >> there is a lot of talk with the gop looking ahead to the

debt limit when there will be anything substantial don entitlement reform and things of that nature. and how worries are you that we could see a repeat of the possible down great of the u.s. createit rating? >> i'm concerned about it. we reached the debt limit, but tricks we can play to keep the government operating. that looks like no more than 60 days. it's an arbitrary and useless statute. denmark i think is the only other country that has something like that. this would be gamesmanship of

the most dangerous kind. i hope nobody is going to play that game. i know the president said he is not going to play that game. if the republicans think they use that as leverage, they do that at their own risk. >> congressman, good luck to the cardinals. take care. >> thank you, luke. >> we are keeping our eye on how the stalemate is playing on wall street and president george hw bush is now in intensive care. the latest on his condition next. first, which current senator spent the most people in the house of representatives before entering the senate? tweet us and the first correct answer will get a follow thursday for us. more on that. we will give you a hint. it's not chuck schumer. [ male announcer ] you like who you are... and you learned something along the way. this is the age of knowing what you're made of.

so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. this is the age of taking action. viagra. talk to your doctor. see if america's most prescribed ed treatment is right for you.

that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, they help save you up to thousands

in out-of-pocket costs. call today to request a free decision guide. with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients... plus, there are no networks, and you'll never need a referral to see a specialist. join the millions who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp... and provided by unitedhealthcare insurance company, which has over 30 years of experience behind it. with all the good years ahead, look for the experience and commitment to go the distance with you. call now to request your free decision guide.

>> word today that 88-year-old former president george hw bush has been moved to the intensive care unit of a houston hospital. he has been in the hospital since november battling a persistent cough. in houston with the latest. charles, hello. why the move to the intensive care unit in the last day? >> good morning, luke. the spokesman for the bush family said that the former president continues to battle a persistent stubborn fever. in fact the spokesman said late yesterday that the president in fact has been in icu here at methodist hospital in houston since last sunday and has been on a liquid diet since yesterday. he was moved to the icu, the intensive care unit because of advanced age. the former president is 88 years old and because of his weakened condition. he has been in the hospital here since november 23rd when he came in complaining about a

persistent cough. last week that turned into a fever and doctors are still trying to figure out the source of that fever. the hospital issued a statement today saying there will be no more updates on the president's condition unless events warrant. we will have to wonder how the president is doing. we hope to get an update perhaps later today. he is getting a lot of support from family. barbara bush visits at least twice a day. his daughter came to visit and his son, the former president, is expected soon. mr. bush continues to be alert and talkative had the icu, but doctors are not mentioning a discharge date yet. >> thanks so much for your report. we ark appreciate it. lots of people are getting nowhere fast as a winter storm whips through the northeast bringing high winds and snow and travel misery. we will tell you where the worst of the trouble spots are. we are watching "the daily

rundown" and hope that's video of buffalo with all that snow. god's country. humans -- sometimes life trips us up. and sometimes, we trip ourselves up, but that's okay. at liberty mutual insurance we can "untrip" you as you go through your life with personalized policies and discounts when you need them most. just call... and speak with a licensed representative about saving on your policy when you get married, move into a new house... [crash!] or add a car to your policy. don't forget to ask about saving up to 10% when you combine your auto and home insurance with liberty mutual. security, coverage, and savings. all the things humans need to make our beautifully imperfect world a little less imperfect. call... and lock in your rate for 12 months. liberty mutual insurance.

responsibility. what's your policy?

i'm going to dream about that steak. i'm going to dream about that tiramisu. what a night, huh? but, um, can the test drive be over now? head back to the dealership? [ male announcer ] it's practically yours. but we still need your signature. volkswagen sign then drive is back. and it's never been easier to get a passat. that's the power of german engineering. get $0 down, $0 due at signing, $0 deposit, and $0 first month's payment

on any new volkswagen. visit vwdealer.com today. . the opening bell rang and you see members of syracuse football team. the lesser of two evils. a lot of loans at nbc news. futures were up slightly and we learned that new jobless claims fell to the lowest level in over four yearsful a sign that job marks might be healing. all eyes on the fiscal cliff talks in washington. on the radar, deadly storms trigger travel chaos. good news about nelson mandela's health and a very, very expensive day for toyota. first the storm system that claimed at least lives. overnight it pushed from indiana to maine. some areas got heavy snow and

it's expected through the northeast today. it triggered a portfolio christmas travel nightmare. 2,000 flights have been canceled and 10,000 have been delayed. spending a lot of time with in-laws because of the weather. south african president nelson mandela is out of the hospital. the 94-year-old will receive home-based care. he is recovering from a lung infection and a procedure to remove gall stones. toyota agreed to a $1.1 billion class action settlement over complaints that cars accelerated without warning. owners of 16 million toyota, lexus and sion vehicles will be eligible depending on the make and the model. what a story that was years ago. with gridlock in capitol hill synonymous, there lessons to be learned from dwight eisenhower's success in working by the opposing party. chuck recently sat down with a

claim biographer and journalist and discussed his new book on the 34th president, the who gave us our highways. >> for years, dwight david eisenhower was viewed as a man who was disengaged and bumbling and he loved to golf other than govern. according to a book, ike's bluff, his secret battle to save the world. beneath that was an exterior was a man and this former general's greatest victory were the wars he did not fight. joining me now is journalist and author evan thomas. dwight eisenhower it's said that he was the only president we had who the title president was not the greatest title he ever had. >> when are he quit, he wanted to revert to being general.

jfk couldn't believe it? why would he want to give up president for a title. he was an army man and served in his army. >> why did he get a reputation for being this disengaged president? >> partly by his own design. he felt he could be more effective by not being a giant ego himself and letting the other egos clash and he came in and settled it. >> one of the things you talk about is all the wars. you are quoting eisenhower directly. i have spent my in the study of military strength and a deterrent to war. dwight eisenhower said this before vietnam and afghanistan. we are about to unwind. nobody is calling it victory. it's simply we are stopping it. >> he wanted to avoid the wars because he felt they could become big wars. he did not commit anything.

once he got us out of korea. >> that was his goal and why he got elected. >> it took a few months, but he got out. he kept the troops out of vietnam and had a lot of crisis. there were constant crisis in the 1950s. in china, russia, berlin, korea and vietnam and ike would bluff with nuclear weapons and he was determined to keep us out of war. >> do you think he was an isolationist? >> no. he believed we had to be in the world and very much for native. the first supreme allied commander and he opposed his own party that had a strong isolationist right wing at the time. >> looking back at eisenhower and we had this conversation off camera, i guess i could say he's the closest person we had to an independent or less partisan, least partisan president ideal

origin ly. >> a lot of people didn't know if he was a democrat or republican. both parties asked him to run. in his heart he was more of a republican, but it was useful for him to float above politics. he was a great politician. you don't get to be commander of anything unless you are. >> how much politics there is in the military. >> absolutely. >> you don't get the star for just what you did on the battlefield. >> he was very good at dealing with the giant egos he had to deal with. churchill and roosevelt and general patton and what he was great at was manipulating subtly big egos. >> somebody had a photo recently of dwight eisenhower in uniform as an active five-star general

and david petraeus. and it says something about our society. >> it does. look at me. when i was an editor of news week, i ran a photograph with admiral nimitz. the one that we had was the highest medal you can get. the larger point is that they didn't show off so much in that day. that's maybe a lesson for us today that we should show off less and accomplish more. >> because of eisenhower, there is this yearning by both political parties when they can't find somebody to lead them. maybe there is somebody in the military. it just never worked. it never worked? was eisenhower a unique individual? >> it wasn't his military genius that made him successful, but

political genius. truman said he will come in and give the ares and press the buttons and nothing will happen. he will see the frustration of being president. eisenhower could deal with that because he had a long view. weirdly and this sounds odd, but he cut the military and defense spending because he could get away with it. he did it quietly and he warned against the mill stare industrial complex, but quietly he was doing that all along as president or trying to. >> it seems your part of this crowd, we are going to see a revival of the eisenhower president. is that a model for future presidents? >> i hope so. it suits my taste. i think people will compromise who is not pounding away at an ideological point. >> evan thomas, the book is

ike's bluff, the secret battle to save the world. he is an underwritten about president. you got it first. >> thank you, chuck. >> thank you, sir. top quality interview from chuck todd. 110 hours and counting now until the cliff deadline. the only thing that everyone can agree on is there is probably not going to be a deal. our gaggle will be here to break it down and the senate surprise we did not see coming. first, the white house soup of the day, chipotle beef. i have a pronunciation from my producer. everyone knows chipotle. that's a good soup. they serve it at the real chipotch chipot chipotle. check us out on facebook. don't go to chipotle for another 20 minutes. [ cellphon irping ] [ buzzing ]

bye dad. drive safe. k. love you. [ chirping, buzzing continues ] [ horn honks ] [ buzzing continues ] [ male announcer ] the sprint drive first app. blocks and replies to texts while you drive. we can live without the &. visit sprint.com/drive.

constipated? yeah. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'.

daily flash backs at the music city radio hall. they were designed to be a place where ordinary people could afford to experience high quality entertainment. 80 years later, 300 million people have seen shows and it's still the largest indoor theater in the world. so big that they even played a wnba basketball game there and it's across the street from the studios in new york. stalemate and gridlock. call it what you will, but with washington five days away from falling off the cliff, had this become the new normal the senior editor from the national view. welcome and thank you so much. i top the play a cliff that we

had yesterday on the report. it was interesting to see where the crisis has gone. >> it's not a cliff, but more like a slope. it's on january 20th. it's retro actively with the spending and i don't think there was any great impact. not too much. >> we had this two months back and forth. if we don't hit this january 1st deadline, the minds would be right and the world is collapsing. chicken little full on. there seems to be this conventional wisdom that we can get into january and all the way to the 10th. is that practical? >> if you are looking at signs that there is not going to be a deal, both sides are talking about how it would be. the only thing that forces a

deal to be made before the deadline is if the marks went crazy and it was a sign that something had to be done and the house took up the bill. at the moment that certainly doesn't electric like the course we are on. >> how are the toll picks playing into this in terms of extending the deadline? do you think they will buy that? >> this hyperbole of the fiscal cliff, but i see when the economists take on this, it seems more slope-like. to susan's claim about the markets, there was an interesting item in the guardian about an analyst who just yesterday was marking on the president cutting his vacation short and said that if there was stronger confidence in government, that would cause an effect on the markets. that he was coming home perhaps as much as a 20-point drop in the s&p 500.

it's as if there is no confidence in the ability to fix this. they didn't even respond. to me that's where we should look for the signs. not the hyperbole from the hill, but where the marks not responding temperature seems to give credence to the cliff and not the slope. they are talking about how it's not that bad to go over. it's too complacent. we have here washington-created uncertainty about policy. it's already -- there is no way can you say this is helping the economy for people not to know what their tax bills are going to be. what rate they will be paying in a few days. >> one of the subplots that came out of this is that if boehner doesn't want his hands on any deal prior it his election in

speaker. mitch mcconnell doesn't want his hands on the deal because he is worried about a challenger from the right. do you think there is credence in that or is that a liberal idea as to why things are the way they are. >> i don't think that's true of speaker boehner. he was willing to have his fingerprints on a bill that was going to cause taxes to go up for people making more than $1 million, but it's absolutely true that there house republicans who are saying especially they would rather see taxes go up by more if they don't have to vote for anything that has their name on it. their vote attached. it's really a disturbing sign about the way people view their responsibilities as officer-holders. >> did you ever see the lack of courage you see now from our viewers and not wanting anything to do with something that can hurt them with their own party?

>> only every six months or so. i don't think this is extraordinary. even in the past four years, we had a series of cliff-like experiences. tracy's point, the fact that markets don't see this as remarkable is the biggest thing. if the marks did see this as something stunning that they were unable to reach a deal after saying it was going to be so disastrous, that would be a sign that there is an expectation that the system will work now. we are building an expectation that the system will not work. both sides say we will hit a reset button and it will be easier for us to do. >> we had the congressman and tom cole on the show earlier. >> at the end of the day, common sense takes over. nobody wants the taxes on the 98% of the american people to go up. i think we can act quickly to take care of that. >> to me it makes like there is no way there will be a deal done

unless there 230 tom coles. >> it's funny that you see tom cole saying i want to come back to washington, d.c. tomorrow because i think boehner -- tom said absolutely not. they are this close to the deadline, there is no real idea of what's happening. these are our elected leaders. >> the video clip you may want to play tomorrow is kick the can down the road from republicans and democrats and the house and senate. it's the phrase du jour to that conveys no action. it's a sad state and here we are. >> congressman cole is wrong in saying nobody wants to see middle class taxes go up. nobody wants to see themselves getting blamed. that's the real dynamic. nobody is attached to the taxes in d.c. we'll be back with our l in a bit. now trivia question. the answer, maryland junior

senator ben cardin. he spent 20 terms in the house before becoming a senator. that's a good chunk of time. if you have a political question for us, e-mail us. we'll be right back. don't go anywhere. [ male announcer ] how do you measure happiness? by the armful? by the barrelful? the carful? how about...by the bowlful? campbell's soups give you nutrition, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

i have appointed brian schott as the next senator from hawaii. of course senator inouye's views and wishes were considered fully. quite an amazing shocker there, tracy, we thought it was going to be dana.

>> well, democracy often treated like a sport, but in the end is a democracy. i give kudos to the governor for following his principles and the wishes of the state. i don't even want to try to dissect if it was a dis on the late heroic senator. >> i think there's a number that matters, 40, the age of brian shatz. this sets him up for decades if he manages to win. the congresswoman i think is in her early 60s. i think that may have been part of the governor's calculation. >> hawaii has lot as much as senator inouye was a hero. i didn't know the whole story until he passed away. it's not your personal property

to pass along. >> it's not the kennedys seat, the same thing. shameless plugs. >> sending good wishes to george h.w. bush. >> indeed all of us are. >> the first presidential hopeful i ever interviewed. >> historic. tracy? >> my mother is a christmas birthday baby. sometimes christmas birthday babies need another birthday wish. >> they do. it's never fair. because people say one present for both. >> my new think tank home the american enterprise institute has a summer program for college students. i just saw this. it actually looks pretty good. >> that's right. spend your summer there, get a lot of chgs interesting information. coming up next on msnbc, chris jansing & company. thanks for watching.

i'm only in my 60's... i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, it helps pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you thousands in out-of-pocket costs.

to me, relationships matter. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and you never need a referral to see a specialist. so don't wait. call now and request this free decision guide to help you better understand medicare... and which aarp medicare supplement plan might be best for you. there's a wide range to choose from. we love to travel -- and there's so much more to see. so we found a plan that can travel with us. anywhere in the country. [ male announcer ] join the millions of people who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. remember, all medicare supplement insurance plans

help cover what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you thousands a year in out-of-pocket costs. call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is.